Virtuosic

A frustrating feature of the spring birdsong on Blacka is that the best of it is often found very close to the busy Hathersage Road. Why? There's some good woodland there and some excellent ground cover. There's also the fact that the road is higher than the woodland meaning the boundary wall gives shelter. Other reasons there may be. Nevertheless, because of the noise, my tentative and very amateur attempts at sound recording here are doomed to failure not in the least helped by the strong wind.

This morning's star and perhaps the star of the whole season was a garden warbler of stunning power and virtuosity. As I listened I knew where he was, only a few feet from me one way and a few feet from the heavy traffic on the road the other way, but I could not see him. So no photo either.The tone was gorgeous and the delivery of each phrase immaculate as the ideas tumbled over each other; and such volume - perhaps intended to compete with the quarry lorries and commuters.

It ended when not one but two brown birds quickly flew off out of the dense bramble giving partial confirmation that this was indeed a garden warbler and not a blackcap: I still hesitate with this. Mostly it's fairly easy but certain individual birds can make it tricky. A YouTube video from BTO is useful but it doesn't give enough time for listening to the birds themselves.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MBEfujzRrh8

Local birders are more keen on the wood warbler mainly because of its comparative scarcity. But its song, pretty enough in its way, is no match for the dazzling musicianship of these two.

In the absence of a recording of today's bird -

https://soundcloud.com/pastandpresent/pag

and -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjJj4XoBNsM

Two fast pieces to compare with our garden warbler. The second is called Bird Gets Worm, by Charlie 'Yardbird' Parker. Improvised of course as is birdsong. The first is a bit of the famous Paganini Caprice for solo violin; Joshua Bell I think.